Kent Bush: Moving past politics of blame

Polls are showing that the Republicans damaged their party brand when they shut down the government in order to try to stop the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

That strategy failed miserably. If the Republicans were thinking ahead, they would have told everyone to watch out because this Obamacare stuff was really going into effect now. They would have tied that horrible website and program roll out to Obama and the Democrats and then they could have come in with a plan to delay implementation so they could have saved the day.

Instead, they cost the country about $24 billion with a shutdown.

Sensing a chance to retake a little political ground, Obama is going out to raise money and find candidates to run in races where Republican incumbents are most vulnerable.

I would like to see both parties move past the politics of blame.

“It’s their fault things aren’t going well,” one party says.

“Things would be even worse if we weren’t in office,” the other responds.

I would love to see the focus of elections move to which candidate would govern best rather than which one can salute the most flags, kiss the most babies and spout the most platitudes in a 30 second campaign commercial paid for by out of state money.

Isn’t it time to look for substance over style for a change?

I get so tired of having to try to decide who to vote for based on which one of them is the lesser of two evils.

I would love to see Obama put out an agenda and tell voters what the Democrats could accomplish if voters give the Democrats control of the House of Representatives again if the country goes back to the Democrat control of both houses of Congress and the White House like 2008-2010.

It is ridiculous how many people have been elected based on what they would not allow to happen. It would be nice if the Republicans could make the argument that they could accomplish certain goals if their party’s candidates were elected.

Then voters could identify the platform they would most like to see brought to fruition.

Instead, we will face another year of accusations and insinuations and voters will become more apathetic because that show is hard to watch year after year.

That style has been the key to our lack of success. Congress has only passed a few dozen bills this session because they are too busy working against each other to work with each other. We may never have another budget pass again and the only time anything happens at all is to avoid a shutdown or end one.

If you elect do-nothing candidates, you get a do-nothing Congress. I don’t mind Obama raising funds and awareness. It is part of his job. But I hope he is able to sell an agenda as well as an opportunity. I don’t want to have candidates who are a little less bad than the ones we have now.

I want to vote for someone who can and will get something done.

I hope this happens but I won’t hold my breath.

Kent Bush is the publisher of the Augusta Gazette, the El Dorado Times, and the Andover American newspapers. He can be contacted at: kbush@augustagazette.com